


To Be Loved By The Queen

by SecondStarfall (beantiger)



Series: The Second Starfall Stories [21]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Botany, Childbirth, Dragons, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Style, Fantasy, Fatherhood, Flash Fic, Friendship, Guilt, Half-Human, Healing, Love, M/M, Medieval, Microfic, Names, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Other, Polyamory, Shame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:33:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22372636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beantiger/pseuds/SecondStarfall
Summary: "Your ministrations safeguarded her, you realize. Kept her life long enough for the surgeon to arrive," the dragon replied, softly. "And she wed me for a reason. I say this because, despite those rather obvious facts, you will feel shame as long as I will. It is not rational."***A dragon and a botanist discuss someone they love.
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character/Original Character
Series: The Second Starfall Stories [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582975
Kudos: 11





	To Be Loved By The Queen

**Author's Note:**

> This is a version of the original Twitterfic, same title, posted over at my now-deactivated personal account in January 2020. It has been given fairly moderate edits for consistency with other stories and readability on AO3. ❤️ 
> 
> **RECOMMENDED RE-READING:** Queen Alexandrine married a dragon and a tulip-farmer in ["Dragon, Dragonfly."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22056346) Alexandrine's relationship to Valériane appears most prominently in ["Valerian of the Road."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22112509)
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨

When the botanist Valériane de la Rue awoke in her tower some time after tending to the queen in labor, she felt something massive hit the roof. Her body reacted before her mind did and she approached the window, her veins burning with panic.

Her head ached and rang: _I can save her, I can save her—_

If the surgeon could just give Valériane more time, more time—

She just needed to get back to—

A great green eye looked back at her from outside. 

"She will live," said the dragon, who sometimes took a human shape, but ultimately preferred his true form. "The babe...tore at her, on the way into the world. The surgeon sewed her back together."

"You trust a _surgeon_? Who attends her now?"

"The tulip-farmer is with her and the child. Your woman the guard is with the older girls. And you collapsed in here, though only the spirits know how anyone pried you from the birthing room. At any rate: summer has come and even the waters are at rest."

(This was his draconic way of saying that all was well.)

"You said the newborn tore at her? Her third child?"

The dragon had begun to crawl back up the tower roof, but stopped. Twitched his magnificent wings. Returned to the window again. 

"Ah, damn you. For that I am at fault, little botanist. For that as with many things. I did not know guilt until I came to live among you all. To create three lives in such a way was a wager with the universe every time. We won with Honorine, with Tristenne. This one..." 

A shudder rippled through his massive body, as if he could not contain the depth of his sadness.

Valériane thought of the queen’s older daughters—half-dragons, scaled and clawed and winged and yet human in shape. She loved them more than she loved herself, her nieces, but understood that every part of their existence was new.

“You couldn't know what your blood could do in human veins,” said Valériane. “All the lore I found was apocryphal at best—” 

"Your ministrations safeguarded her, you realize. Kept her life long enough for the surgeon to arrive," the dragon replied, softly. "And she wed me for a reason. I say this because, despite those rather obvious facts, you will feel shame as long as I will. It is not rational." 

He twisted his head through the window and pressed it against Valériane. She tucked her arms around his chin.

"Let us dwell on it together," he whispered—and, as it is now widely known, a dragon's whisper could comfort anyone. Even a botanist.

"The child...?"

"A girl, as you predicted," he continued as the botanist quaked into terrible sobs. “With eyes of violet and scales of gold and hair as dark as sea. And her name is Valériane. But we mean to call her Fleurette. You see, she is small. Smaller than you." 

Valériane’s breathing hitched as she tried to calm herself. She said, "Oh—the queen loves us—she loves us, doesn’t she?"

"She does. Sometimes even I am not certain why, but she does."

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or a kudos or whatever the heck if this tickled your fancy. There shall be more! ❤️ Also, please let me know what other characters, relationships, or places you'd like to hear about. I have lots of ideas, but I'd enjoy writing a few stories for y'all as well.
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY:** Dragons aren't really built to reproduce, though they can recreate the process in other forms if they so choose. Most don't see the point. Then again, most don't fall in love with a queen and a tulip-farmer.
> 
> Anyway, results may vary. All three of the princesses show their draconic blood differently. Though her two older sisters are relatively human in appearance, Fleurette looks like a little kobold.


End file.
